the first one

i've been thinking a lot about my kids and how incredible life has been since they joined us.

coop was born during finals week, three days before matt graduated from the Y. he weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. he had reddish colored hair and bright blue eyes. when he cried for the first time we could hear our families yelling in the hallway. for the next two days our friends and family kept me company in the hospital while matt took his finals. the pediatrician had to pry coop from my mom's hands when it was time for the circumcision. weed and mom and brit spent hours holding him those first few days. when we finally went home coop slept quietly in his swing while matt and i and ben and brit played volleyball in our backyard. we took him everywhere, at all hours of the day; to walmart at midnight to get the new harry potter book, to krispy kreme at 1am, to late movies, and intramural softball games. weed spent the majority of her days at the house holding him. the love affair between weed and coop was born in those many quiet moments. when coop was two months old, with heavy hearts, we packed up the house that we loved and moved across the country to ind for dental school. he and i spent countless hours at mom's house those first few months and he developed a very serious relationship with his bed. he woke each morning between 10 and 11am, napped from 1-4pm, and went to bed for the night at 7:30pm. he started army crawling at 4 months and finally decided he was ready to walk 10 months later. he LOVED to be held. and i LOVED to hold him. i sat in the blue chair holding him whenever he wasn't sleeping. i rocked him to sleep at night and just totally savored being his mom. he had curly, blond hair that i loved. matt hated it. but i didn't care. he slept with us in our bed until he fell out. and then he slept in his bed. we took him to indians games and fought over who held him at night while he slept. he said "ball" before he said "mom" or "dad." and we didn't care. he was the softest, most content baby. he adored his "baba" and his aunt v. matt nicknamed her "the sleep machine." anytime she touched coop he fell asleep. and was he ever a sweaty sleeper. i called him "teeny man;" he was anything but tiny. he fit perfectly into my life. made it sweeter. still makes it sweeter.